November marks four months of living here in Belem.  We have moved to a safer apartment not far from our old one.  We haven't missed the dogs, or the night time barking.  Now we listen to very loud frogs, which I like.  Reed is jogging with two people from the job site once a week.  They are both about 30 years younger than him, so he gets a good work out.

We went driving last Saturday, and stopped by the river in downtown Belem.  They had a sign that says, " I (heart) Belem.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful sign.





Another thing we saw was a statute much like the Statute of Liberty in New York Harbor.  This one is not nearly as big, but it was fun to see it.






We saw a lot of birds,  but this heron was a surprise.  I was taking pictures of boats, and when I enlarged the photo, there was the heron, just sitting there.







The last thing  from our drive that I am including is this burned out wreck of a bus.  It looked like it had been there for a while, just sitting on the side of the street.  I thought when I saw it that it was like a warning for our lives; stay active, stay useful, or maybe we will be sitting on the side of the road like the poor abandoned bus.







The last photo is of our worker birthday party.  Once a month, we have a birthday party for all workers who have birthdays during that month.  Since it was on Halloween, Reed bought a Happy Halloween cake.  Nobody spoke English, so nobody noticed.  I made the cupcakes.

October 2019 in Belem, Brasil

We are doing fairly well here in lovely Belem  do Para.  This is supposed to be the beginning of the other season down here.  The season we are leaving has rain on average once a day.  The season we are going into has rain all the time.  So far, we haven't seen much difference, but everyone says it is coming.  We both are marching forward with our individual crosses.  Mine is trying to relearn Portuguese, and Reed's is trying to drive without losing his patience.  He is also struggling with the high humidity here.  The heat would be easier to handle if the humidity were not so very high.  Today, the temperature is 89.6 degrees fahrenheit, and the humidity is 60%.  Sounds nice  unless you are working in it.  I like the heat, and love the thunderstorms.

We are including 4 photos I took with my little cell phone.  The first one is of a statute I took downtown.  Belem was established in 1616, so it is about 400 years old.  Lovely old town.


The second was at President and Sister Soare's apartment.  They had a birthday party for Reed, including cake and ice cream.  They are very thoughtful and gracious people.  They are the mission president and his wife here.  They are from Recife, and will be here for three years

The third picture is one of the front of our old apartment, with the two surviving puppies from when we moved in three months ago.  Originally, there were six, but two died, and two got run over by cars.  We bought dog treats to toss when we moved the car in and out.  They slept under our car, and got into the street whenever we opened the gate.  Until we started tossing treats.   The last picture is of our new apartment.  We moved (in fits and starts ) over the last week.  We like not having to worry about dog poop, or even worse, running over one of the pups, as well as being able to walk around without being robbed.  The new place is a condo complex with security and gates.  It also isn't too far from the job site. 

We love what we are doing, we love the Lord, and we love the Brazilian people.




 

We went to a ceremony honoring the church for it's service in the community, and for the Proclamation on the Family.  The photo shows the city officials, as well as the local leaders of the church here in the state of Para.  The mural in the background is very pretty.  We are sitting in the second row, in reserved seats, much to our chagrin.  We were trying to sit in the back so we could slip out after an hour to go to another appointment.  Didn't happen.  We got introduced, and got to stay for the full 2 and a half hours.  It was really nice.

This is a picture of one of our daily afternoon rainstorms.  Once in a while, we have a day without rain, but most of the time it comes down hard for about five minutes, and then stops.  Donna loves the rain, especially since the little container we are currently housed in at the job site has a metal roof.  It is such a lovely sound every day.  We are mostly enjoying this mission.  We have issues with language, humidity, and driving, in that order.  Oh, and barking dogs.  Our apartment has many many barking dogs.

 Monkey at job site - one of our neighbors in the jungle to the south of the project.

We spent the morning having our finger prints taken at the Federal Police office here in Belem.  This is the second stop in the effort to obtain our permission to stay in the country.  In about 60 days we can return to the first Federal Police office and receive our card that proves we are entitled to be in Brasil.

Interestingly enough, my temporary authorization is until August of 2021 while Donna's authorization says she is good until August of 2020.  We'll need to straighten this one out when we receive our permanent cards.

Friday we attended President Nelson's devotional with the missionaries.  President Soares, our mission president, made sure we were invited.  Sunday we attended President Nelson's devotional for all members in Brasil.  It was broadcast via the internet to chapels throughout Brasil.

As the closing hymn was being sung, I became emotional as I thought back to what has changed since Donna and I served missions here in Brasil from 1969 to 1971.  Where there was a single stake in Sao Paulo, now there are many stakes.  There were no temples in Brasil and now we are being given the privilege to assist in a small way in the construction of the 9th temple in Brasil.  It seemed to me that there were angels singing with the group of about 300 who were in our stake center.  I imagine that many of the true pioneers of the church in Brasil who have already passed on were helping the congregations sing.  It was inspiring and uplifting.  These experiences make the opportunity to serve here even more special.

Here's a foto of the site with the jungle (a preserved area controlled by the Navy) in the background.  This is a legitimate photograph that I can share because it was taken from outside the project.

Here we sit in our cool container, well it would be cool if Donna would not turn the thermostat up, while workers outside work hard on two accessways to the site and caisson work continues.

We met with a member of the local high end neighborhood and passed on the following message to Troy Buckner (the Church's project manager here in Brazil.)

"While Sister Nielsen and I were walking along the north boundary of the site, a person living in the condominium walked over to speak with us.  Paulo Coutinho de Vilhena, who is a civil engineer and works with IN LOCO Engenharia e Fundações Especiais, had run out of gas on the access to his home in the condominium and while waiting for his nephew to fill his car with gas, wanted us to know that not everyone in the condominium is against the project.  I believe in reference to the individual who made the most noise, he said that there were some that were only happy when everything was 100% in their favor.  He assured us there were others who did not share the same concerns.  We shared with him briefly the numbers that attend the Rexburg temple over the course of a day and assured him that the number of attendees here would not be so great as to cause major problems with the condominium.  He said that the presentation did indicate a much smaller number of attendees than some in the condominium were concerned about.

We invited him to visit with us when the missionary office is finished and learn about the temple that is being built.  He said to let him know if there was anything he could do to help us.

It was a nice encounter.

I have his card and will give it to Ednei."

We visited the grocery store Tuesday night.  I took a picture of the avocados that were there.  The picture doesn't do these things justice.  We purchased one last week and have had several slices every night until last evening.  They are about the size of a large grapefruit available in Rexburg.

Last night I was awakened by a telephone call just before 9PM (Yes, we do go to bed earlier here) from one of the local members.  He asked Donna and me to teach a marriage and family relations class this coming Saturday evening at 8PM.  After trying to figure out what he wanted us to do, Reed and he agreed that we would come Saturday and see the lesson manual and see how we could accomplish this with our limited Portuguese speaking abilities.  He even said we could present the lesson in English, then no one would understand.

Given the requirement that pictures from within the walls of the site are not to be taken except for purposes of as-built and reports to the Church, Reed has decided to take a picture each week from this location just north of the site and outside of the fence to provide all with an understanding of what is going on here in Belem.  This was taken earlier in the morning before we travelled to meet with the Federal Police.  Not to worry.  We had to meet with them to begin the process of extending our visa to two years from the one year that we were originally given.  We'll go back in two weeks to another Federal Police office to have all of our finger prints taken.

The next step will be to obtain a Brasilian driver's license.  Unfortunately, the International one is only good for 3 months.

Life is good.  It looks like we are attending a baptism tonight in a nearby ward.  More about that later.

As we sit in our shipping container that is our temporary office for the next few months listening to the rain beat upon the sheet metal roof  Reed is reminded of rain storms that he was privileged to drive through in Salt Lake City, when he worked for his grandfather Reed in the late 60's before his mission and early 70's after the mission.  Only those thunder storms are not comparable to the one we are going through right now.  We have been told that it will rain like this much more often during the months of January, February, March and April.

Here's a foto of the inside of our office.  Donna is hard at work

Last Saturday was the ground breaking of the temple construction and work has commenced for real here on the site.  Reed has been privileged to participate in two safety orientations and a weekly safety meeting thus far.  He is given the opportunity to provide some background on the construction of a temple, why the church builds them and how each worker is a part of a team to make sure the work is done safely and of high quality.   Everything we have seen thus far leads us to believe we are working with some honorable, helpful and outstanding people.

Here's fotos of the two of us in our safety vests and hardhats.  You are not allowed to laugh!!!

We arrived just over two weeks ago in Belem.  During this time Elder Nielsen has spent time learning to drive again in Brasil (it is different!!!!) and we've met some very wonderful people.  President and Sister Soares (our mission president and wife) met us at the airport at 2:30AM on July 31, took us to their home for a time to sleep and recover.  We've been introduced to Ednei, who is the Church's site manager, and quite a number of workers of Afonso França, who is the contractor on site.  We've been to the grocery store several time, purchased two Brasilian cell phones, obtained internet access at the site.

Here's a panoramic picture of the project site taken from outside the fence.  Any fotos that we take from inside are to remain Church property and cannot be shown on any public service.  It sounds like some of the rules that existed when I worked on project with Bechtel.

Our apartment has an air conditioned bedroom so we are able to sleep at night but we are adjusting better to the heat and the humidity so we don't have the A/Z on much during the day and have, in fact, turned the temperature down at night.

The final photograph is a rendering as to what the temple will look like when completed.  This one can also be shown since it is already available on the Church's web site.

We completed our time in the MTC yesterday.  On our way home we stopped at Les (Reed's brother) and Carol's home in Cedar Hills, Utah.  They were kind enough to take us to breakfast.  Afterwards, we travelled to Bountiful, Utah where we attended an extended family reunion of Reed's great great grandfather's (Peter Anton Nielsen) descendants.  Les and Carol had come up and Patti (Reed's sister) and her husband David had come down from Garland.  It was great to be able to talk with them and to briefly meet with relatives with whom we have not had any contact.  We completed our trip to Rexburg without difficulty and will spend a week here getting ready to make the long trip to Belem.

Here are two fotos of the members of our senior mission district.  The first is with our morning instructor, Brother Hickmott and the second is with Brother Roberts.  Both are students at BYU and have returned within the past two years from their missions.

From left to right, Brother and Sister Denton, Reed and Donna Nielsen, Brother and Sister Hanson, Brother Hickmott, Brother and Sister Hanson and Brother and Sister Johnson

Brother Roberts is in the middle

Reed pointing to Rexburg and Donna pointing to Belem, Brasil

Thursday we also met our granddaughter, Roya at the MTC.  She is now teaching Croatian to missionaries going to that part of the world.

Roya with Donna and Reed

We have continued our training here in Provo.  The time goes by quickly and we are being taught out of the Church's, Preach My Gospel booklet.  Even though it is highly unlikely that we will be asked to formally teach anyone about the Church.  We are in class for about 7 hours each day.

We have been paired up with a wonderful sister missionary (see foto below taken with Sister Siders) from Colorado who is going to St. George to work in Records Preservation.  She will be travelling to Salt Lake to the Church Family History Library to learn more about her specific tasks before she leaves for St. George sometime next week.  We hope to be able to stay in touch with her and help each other as we serve our respective missions.

We continue to look for Roya (our grand daughter) who is supposed to be teaching Croatian here in the MTC, but haven't seen her yet.

We have also met at least two couples with whom we have some type of connection.  An Elder and Sister Butler.  He was a missionary in the Brazil North mission at the same time as mother and I.  He arrive about a month before me but we never worked in the same areas.  We were talking with a couple from Arizona, Elder and Sister Favreau, who are friends with Pat and Shelley Huish from when Pat and Shelley lived in Arizona.  Favreau's are going to France to serve with young special interests (YSA) individuals and say hello to the Huish's.

Those in our district are Elder and Sister Hansen who are from Eagle Mountain they are going to Ohio to teach institute at Ohio State.  Elder and Sister Johnson are going to Mesa where they will work with the Church Education System (CES).  Elder and Sister Denton are going to France assigned to work with YSA.

Yesterday we managed a successful drive from Rexburg, Idaho to my sister's (Heidi) home in Riverton.  This morning, after making a quick stop at the Church Office Building (COB) in Salt Lake City to pick up name tags we drove to the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC).

Interesting note:  The first package of name tags that we picked up two weeks ago were in English when they should have been printed in Portuguese.  When we looked at the name tags received today, the printing group had misspelled our assignment (working with the special projects group) and misspelled irmã (the term for sister in Portuguese).  On mine, in addition to misspelling the Portuguese word for special projects, instead of using the title of Elder on my name tag, someone translated Elder into the Portuguese words that translate to "mais velho" Nielsen instead of Elder Nielsen which means the oldest one.

The MTC has an efficient method of handling incoming missionaries.  Today, they oriented approximately 90 senior missionaries and currently have around 2,000 young men and women in training living here.

We were introduced to our room for 5 days (bedroom, closet, desk and bathroom, etc.) for 5 days and then shuttled through the complex being introduced to many people.  It is a good thing there is not going to be a quiz on all of their names.  Donna would probably pass with flying colors but I imagine that I would probably fail, at best receive a C+.

We were divided into missionary districts.  Our district consists of a district leader, Elder Hansen, and his wife (going to Ohio); Elder and Sister Johnson (going to Mesa, Arizona); Elder and Sister Denton (going to France to work with young adults) and us.  We were also introduced to Sister Sider (from north of Denver) who will make up our three-some.  She is going to St. George to work in genealogical records.  For those unfamiliar with vernacular of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder is the title used to refer to men who are serving missions.  Sister is for the women.

We then had a group discussion (all 90 of us) on the purpose of our individual missions.

The balance of the week will consist of discussions on how we can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.  Our primary focus will be explaining to the people of Belém (by the way, Belém translates to Bethlehem in Portuguese) why we are building a temple in their city, in addition to preparing a booklet that describes the construction of the temple and ancillary buildings and assisting the site manager where necessary.

Well, the Visas made it several weeks ago! yea.  I think that is record time.  We will report this coming Monday to the MTC in Provo for one week of missionary training.  Our trip to Brasil will begin on 7/29/2019 when we leave for a just after midnight flight to Charlotte, NC.  From there we travel to Miami and then on to Belem, Brasil arriving there at 3:25AM.  I would imagine we'll need to recover a bit after this trip.

Here's a download of a Google Map image of where we believe we will be living for the time in Belem.  By the way, the Portuguese word Belem translates as Bethlehem in English.

The current mission president, President Nogueira, advised that the apartment (the one on the left) has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, two bath rooms and a service area.  The kitchen appliances are all new and, while not luxurious, appears to be a good place to live.  It is located very close to the site of the temple.  He indicated that it is 50 meters away.  We will see.

He also told me in an e-mail that his replacement as mission president, will pick us up at the airport, which is close by apparently, and deliver us to the apartment upon our arrival.  President Nogueira finishes his assignment as mission president the end of June and a new mission president arrives at that time.

Yesterday we had a wonderful conversation by telephone with Troy Buckner who is the country project manager for the church.  We may have an opportunity to meet with him when we are in Utah in two weeks after we return from our quick trip to visit with Reed B and David's families in Texas and Ohio.

This is the beginning of our blog that documents our experiences as senior missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving the Belem, Brasil assisting in the construction of the Belem temple.

It is hoped that this blog will document our experiences in Belem and to the extent possible the construction of the Belem Temple.

We are scheduled to enter the Provo Mission Training Center (MTC) on July 15, 2019.  Our actual departure to Brasil will depend upon receipt of a Brazilian VISA.